Canadian Ferrets

[Colin Macgregor Stevens]

Dan - It is called "supply and demand" and "inflation".
;-)
The Oklahoma one does not include the smoke grenade launchers by the way.

When buying Ferrets one has a basic choice - Ex-Canadian or ex-British. The Canadian Ferrets were sold surplus c.1981. Most went to the USA as surplus to one buyer and some have suffered greatly in the last quarter century - and a few are even bleaching skeletons now. The ex-British Ferrets often seem to have fared better and some lucky buyers really scored nice condition vehicles. The British kept Ferrets in service longer than CAnada - by another decade. Some were even used in the Gulf War (1991). Canadians like myself may be sentimentally attached to the ex-Canadian examples. Some history can be traced on them (and a lot more now that I have been researching for this book :-) The good news for the British Ferrets is that one can order a copy of the offical record card (you need to know the WD number) from Bovington for 10 Pounds (as I recall). It tells you when and where the ferret was issued.

Canada's 124 Ferrets had no turrets officially. There is a report of a surplus Canadian one with a turret in Wisconsin (as I recall). (Unconfirmed). The one from MILARM in Edmonton had a turret added by Allan Kerr, then the owner, as a security measure. The present owner, Grant McAvoy in Abbotsford, BC has removed the turret and displays it separately.

Fred Van Sickle - My understanding is that his Ferrets were ex-British vehicles.

On today's (2008-01-11) TV news, there was a Ferret that a Doctor drives to work in down in Arlington, Texas. The site makes you watch a commercial before it runs the video. Here is the link:
Ferret driving to work That Ferret is basically the same as the Canadian Ferrets except ours did not have turrets (though we seem to have rented a few turreted Fererts from the British in Cyprus) and as ours were very early production they have square side "windows" whereas this chap's Ferret has the type with a better view area.

The research is 99.999999% done on the Canadian Ferrets for the small book I am writing for SERVICE PUBLICATIONS entitled "The Ferret in Canadian Service." I have found lots of great photos and some interesting stories.



Colin Stevens